Prime MinisterSirimavo Bandaranaike had become extraordinarily unpopular. Her economic policies had led to industrial growth and self-reliance, but were insufficient to overcome unemployment. Constitutionally, she had taken advantage of the1972 constitution to delay the election until 1977, instead of 1975 as would have been the case under the oldSoulbury constitution. The government's strongSinhalanationalist stance had led to unrest in theTamil north; in response, an island-widestate of emergency was imposed, causing hardship to many people. TheUF coalition Bandaranaike had built for the 1970 elections had disintegrated.
By contrast, theUnited National Party had made a surprising comeback since its1970 humiliation. Under the leadership ofJ.R. Jayewardene it had assiduously built up its ground organization. The UNP promised to solve the ethnic problem with adevolution package. Economically, it proposed opening up the Sri Lankan economy again. Constitutionally, the UNP called for replacing theWestminster-based political system with one modelled alongFrench lines. Most importantly, it promised a free extraration of eightpounds ofcereal (the so-calledeta ata), on top of the existing ration of twokilograms ofrice.
More portentous was the status of the Tamil parties. The old federalist Tamil parties had merged to form theTamil United Liberation Front, led byAppapillai Amirthalingam, which had gone beyond regional autonomy to openly call forindependence of the Tamil-speaking regions of the country.
The UNP won the largest landslide in Sri Lankan history, taking over half the vote and 140 of the 168 seats, five-sixths of the legislature. The size of the landslide was magnified by the first-past-the-post system. The SLFP was decimated, falling from 91 seats to only eight–easily the worst defeat that a Sri Lankan ruling party has ever suffered, and one of the worst ever suffered by a governing party in a Westminster system.
For the first time, a Tamil party won the second-highest number of seats inParliament and became theOfficial Opposition.
Abeyratne Pilapitiya of the UNP was elected MP for Kalawana, but was subsequently unseated in an election petition. Sarath Muttetuwegama of the Communist Party was returned to Parliament in the ensuing by-election.
The 1977 election was the only one held in Sri Lanka under the 1972 constitution.[1] A year later, the UNP-dominated legislature amended the constitution to replace the parliamentary system with a presidential system. Under the provisions of the new document, Prime Minister Jayewardene became president on 4 February 1978.
^"Ceylon/Sri Lanka (1948-Present)".University of Central Arkansas Department of Political Science. University of Central Arkansas. RetrievedMay 3, 2024.
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